


Without Cold, the Snow is Just Rain

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Series: SF Discord Challenges [2]
Category: Sally Face (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship/Love, Multi, Polyamory, Rain, Slice of Life, Wordcount: 100-1.000, so so soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 23:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20348233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: Sal, Ash, and Larry share a rainy day together on the grass outside Addison Apartments.





	Without Cold, the Snow is Just Rain

**Author's Note:**

> My piece for the August theme of _Rain_ in the SF Discord. <s>It’s shorter than I meant it to be, but I like how it turned out, so I’m going with it.</s>
> 
> Takes place sometime between Episodes 3 and 4 of the game. They’re all vaguely somewhere in their mid-teens-ish. 
> 
> Title is borrowed from the song _We’re Alive_ by Cavetown.

Somehow, things don’t seem as bleak as they usually do when they’re all standing out in the rain. 

It’s just the three of them, Larry and Ash and Sal, because Todd hadn’t wanted to get sick and Neil had agreed to watch a movie and cuddle with him instead, turning their double-date into an individual one for all involved parties. Sal doesn’t mind, and judging from the happy laughter coming from his companions, they aren’t complaining either. 

Larry stomps around on the grass in front of the apartment complex, doing his best impression of Godzilla and crushing the mud into a slippery pancake, and Ash cheers him on from her place perched atop the Addison Apartments sign. She’s holding an umbrella, although it’s a bit of a moot point since she’s already soaked to the bone from an earlier romp around the property. 

Sal, curled up on the pavement just to the left of them, grins beneath his mask and pointedly ignores the way it tugs at his scars. 

_ There’s nobody I’d rather be in love with more than these two absolute dorks. _

Larry nearly slips, and Ash giggles. “You’re going to fall on your ass,” she warns. Larry waves her off with a self-confident smile. 

“It’s just a little mud!” 

Sal laughs too, momentarily drawing their attention from each other to him, instead. Ash’s eyes are shining, the way they do when she’s happier than she can say, and Larry’s smile grows more genuine when he looks over, with the corners of his eyes crinkling inward. 

When Larry turns back to stomping, his rain boot immediately catches on a divot in the grass and pulls him down hard, sending him right on his ass in the mud.

“I told you!” Ash berates, laughing even as she hops neatly off of the sign. She hands the umbrella over to Sal, who dutifully holds it above himself for a momentary reprieve from the liquid trickling down from the clouds into his eyes and mouth. “You okay?”

Larry crosses his arms over his chest, pouting, so Sal knows immediately that he _ is _ okay. However, Larry also sticks his tongue out at Ash and bats her hands away when she tries to check his wet, muddy arms for injuries, so Sal _ also _knows that he’s being bitter about getting laughed at. 

“I’m fine,” he mutters, loud enough that Sal still hears. Sal flips so that he’s lying on his side instead of his back, clutching the handle of the umbrella between his elbow and his ribs. 

Ash doesn’t hesitate to plop herself down in Larry’s lap; Sal’s pretty sure she’s made the same assumptions about Larry’s behaviour that he has. They all definitely know each other well enough for that. “Awh, is someone being grumpy?”

Larry tugs his arms free from where they’ve been trapped between his chest and Ash’s back. “Hey!” he cries, but he doesn’t push her off. Sal snorts. 

“You love me,” Ash replies confidently, (likely unconsciously) mirroring Larry’s tone from right before he’d fallen. Sal watches Larry’s features soften immediately. 

“You’re lucky I do,” he says, wrapping his arms around her. She grins and presses a quick, closed-mouth kiss to his lips. 

“So I am,” Ash replies lightly. She glances over at Sal and makes a very large _ come here _gesture. When he doesn’t respond right away, she does it a second time, and a third, and continues until he laughs and sits up. He folds the umbrella and sets it down on the concrete, all pretense of staying dry finally officially gone. 

“My pants are going to get all dirty,” he points out, but he makes sure that they can hear the smile in his voice as he approaches them. 

Ash shrugs, making grabby hands at him. “You’re washable, and so are your pants.” Sal takes her hands and lets her pull him down on top of her. They both ignore Larry’s groan of protest, well-aware that it’s more for show than anything else. “I’m getting cold.”

Larry’s hands land on Sal’s sides, officially holding onto him and effectively sandwiching Ash between their bodies. “Maybe we should go inside?” he points out fairly. 

Sal leans back against Ash, humming contentedly. “But I like the rain. It’s nice.”

“Yeah. Sal likes the rain!” Ash pipes up with, without giving Larry any space in between her statement and Sal’s to butt in and protest.

Sal tugs one of his hands free from Ash and uses it to curl his fingers around one of the hands Larry is resting against his hip. “Just a little longer?”

“Yeah, yeah, okay, Sally Face,” Larry concedes, as though there was any doubt in any of their minds of him doing anything but. “A little longer, and then we crash Todd and Neil’s movie date and steal Todd’s hot chocolate.”

Ash laughs. “Sounds like a deal to me.” 

Sal lets his eyes slip closed against the rain, letting himself fall back into silence to the sound of Ash and Larry’s continued bickering. It’s all in jest; both of them sound achingly fond, and it warms Sal from the inside out to be not only a spectator, but a _ part _of this weird, wonderful relationship he’s made with them. 

_ There’s nowhere I would rather be than here. There’s nobody I’d rather be with than them. _

Ash kisses him behind his ear, light and sweet and cold against his own chilled skin. Larry squeezes his hand softly. 

In this single moment, Sal finds himself utterly, unequivocally content. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/comments are love! Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans.


End file.
